[TowerTalk] Calculations

[Jim Lux]

I'm sure you meant "recurring costs should be minimal"...

It depends on how the company getting the calculations contracted with the
engineer.

Most building departments want a "wet-stamped" set of calculations, which
implies that the engineer has reviewed the calculations for that specific
installation and so forth.  This "individual review" would be both legally
and ethically required. The engineer is responsible for also knowing the
local peculiarities of the code, etc. Just to put $250 into perspective,
that's probably around 2-3 hours of the engineer's time, plus all the
incidental costs involved. (does the $250 include shipping the drawings, for
instance.. that's $25 right there)

Indeed, the incremental cost for an engineer to "review" the calculations
might be less than the first time, but bear in mind that's probably what the
engineer is doing the first time.  That is, the $250 pays for the licensed
engineer to review the calculations provided by the manufacturer. I'm not a
tower designer, so if someone just brought me all the drawings for the
tower, it would cost a lot more than $250 to do all the calculations from
scratch.  You'd have to look up the material properties of the parts the mfr
used, check the drawings for the kinds of welds and bolts, etc.  Someone who
designs towers and similar structures for a living would have all this
information at their fingertips, and would know at a glance if the mfr is
using a "generally accepted industry practice" so the strutctural analysis
they'd be reviewing would be fairly cookbook.A "skilled practitioner" would
know where the trouble points might be and home in on those.


All in all, $250 is very reasonable for this kind of professional review.


----- Original Message -----
From: <WarrenWolff at aol.com>
To: <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 12, 2004 12:58 AM
Subject: [TowerTalk] Calculations


> And once a fellow gets a set of 90 MPH calculations for $250  or so, why,
o'
> why should any future sales of the same calculations cost the  next fellow
the
> same $250?  The non-recurring cost should be minimal;  right?
>
> Warren
> W5KKW
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